Hey, thanks Lamont! That helps a lot. Wavelength being the meters,
the number 300 coming from the speed of light in thousands of
kilometers (right?).

Just one question though: When I look at my walki-talki's antenna,
when I unscrew it, there is just a single threaded piece of metal, not
two cables. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't attaching a cable
to this threaded piece of metal change its receiving and transmitting
characteristics? What is behind this antenna plastic in my hand
held? A spring like structure? Doesn't the antenna need to push and
pull the electrons? How can it do that if there is only an entrance?
I'm kind of confused about this antenna design stuff. Is there a
paper online where I can read about it?

Are you saying that if I bought a spare antenna for my radio, put it
above my house, and ran a single wire (within the coax shieldings, of
course, but essentially a single conductor) to my radio, that it would
work, perhaps even better than inside my basement? That would be
great.

Wouldent there be a major hurdle in setting up a repeater station, if
there were only one between two radios? I thought a repeater had to
receive on a different frequancy than it transmitted on.

Thanks for those model numbers, BTW, that helps emensly. Would those
work attached to a hand held, or would I need an appropriately powered
transmitter? I will look those up soon.

Sorry, that was actually a lot of questions.
thanks again
fogus